New ISO Standard Offers Integrated Model for Manufacturing Quality Information

The DMSC (Digital Metrology Standards Consortium), recently had their ANSI/DMSC QIF 3.0 metrology standard harvested, approved, and published by ISO as the new ISO Standard ISO 23952:2020 .

DMSC is the developer and maintainer of QIF (Quality Information Framework), and other metrology standards. These standards are intended to help advanced manufacturers reduce costs, offer a common format for product measurement results, and is a critical enabler for digital transformation via MBE (Model Based Enterprise).

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an international standard-setting body comprised of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded in 1947 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the organization promotes worldwide industrial and commercial standards with over 164 countries participating.

The new standard, known as ISO 23952:2020, is available directly from ISO, and officially titled “Automation systems and integration — Quality information framework (QIF) — An integrated model for manufacturing quality information”. This 498-page document describes the general content and structure of the entire QIF information model. It documents the highest level data structures of QIF using data dictionaries and XML schema files. The standard seamlessly defines, organizes, and associates quality information including: measurement plans, resources, part geometry with product and manufacturing information (PMI), rule templates for measurement, results, and statistical analysis.

QIF 3.0 was accepted as an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard in 2018, then submitted for ISO “harvesting” by technical committee ISO/TC 184/SC 4 in early 2019, becoming approved, and officially published by ISO in July, 2020.

Curtis Brown, president of DMSC, commented, “We are extremely pleased to have attained a DMSC goal – of having the ANSI/DMSC QIF v3.0 standard become recognized and published as an ISO standard. Navigating the ISO approval process has been insightful and challenging, with the reward that the ISO community is now able to offer ISO 23952 as an integrated model for manufacturing quality information.”

DMSC will continue to improve and enhance digital information standards such as the QIF, and the organization’s membership is in the process of refreshing their roadmap to broaden their development focus on technologies that will further support digitization, connecting the digital thread, and supporting model-based enterprise.